American Go E-Journal » 2014 » July

Eight days of go in the city that never sleeps is just over a week away at the upcoming US Go Congress at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. There’s still time to register for the biggest go event in North American, which starts on Saturday, August 9, with nearly 500 already signed up. The schedule includes both rated – such as the US Open and continuous Self-Paired — and unrated (9×9, 13×13, Lightning, etc) tournaments, lectures and simuls with professional go players and more. Click here for the latest day-by-day schedule. “We now offer an optional meal plan in the form of vouchers to use at the nearby Café R,” reports Congress Director Matthew Hershberger. “Each voucher is worth $11 and we sell them in groups of 3 for $31.” Click here for more details on these and other costs.

Ilya Shikshin, the only European with a perfect score after the first three rounds of the 58th MLily-WeiqiTV European Go Congress Main Event, lost to Chen Wang in the fourth round. Wang and Yulin Tong top the field with four wins each. Click here for latest results and here for game records.

In other EGC news, the complete European Go Federation board was re-elected during the EGF General Meeting. “During the meeting Catalin Taranu stepped back from his candidacy for president, so no election was necessary/possible because of no alternatives,” reports EGF President Martin Stiassny. Guests at the meeting included Mr. Yamashiro 9P, Nihon Kiin VP, Yuki Shigeno 2P, IGF Advisor in Tokyo and Hajin Lee 3P, IGF General Secretary. At the 6-hour meeting, delegates from 29 countries granted observer status for Iceland and South Africa and made “some important constitutional changes,” Stiassny said. No decision was reached on the 2018 European Congress.

by John Power, EJ Japan Correspondent
Cho Chikun Wins 73rd Title: The final of the fourth Igo Masters Cup was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo, on July 12. Taking black, 25th Honinbo Cho Chikun (right) defeated Kobayashi Satoru 9P by 6.5 points to win this title for the second time. This is Cho’s 73rd title, so he extends his Japanese record. Incidentally, this was the 59th game between these two; Cho now has a lead of one over Kobayashi.

Meijin League: Kono Rin (left) won his seventh-round game, so he stays in a tie for second with Cho U 9P. Kono and Cho play each other in the final round, so, if Yamashita loses, the winner will meet him in a play-off to decide the challenger.(July 11) Kono Rin 9P (B) beat Ryu Shikun 9P by resig.; Murakawa Daisuke 7P (W) beat Yuki Satoshi 9P by resignation.

Kono’s Winning Streak Ends At 19: A loss, to Murakawa Daisuke 7P, in the quarterfinals of the 62nd Oza tournament on July 17 was Kono Rin’s first since mid-April. His record of 19 successive wins is the best winning streak so far this year.

Iyama Catches Up In Gosei Title Match: In the second game of the 39th Gosei title match, played in the Hokkoku Newspaper Hall in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, on 20 July, Iyama Yuta (B) defeated Kono Rin 9P by resignation after 151 moves. This gave him revenge for his loss of the first game in 129 moves. Kono perhaps lost the game because of pessimistic positional judgement: he believed that the result of the first big fight was unfavorable for him — the players following the game disagreed — so he made a deeper invasion than he would have otherwise. Iyama attacked aggressively and killed a large group. The third game will be played on August 11.By the way, I need to correct a mistake I made in my report on the first game. I wrote that Kono suffered straight losses last year, but I was confusing this title match with the 2012 Tengen title match, which Kono did lose 0-3. In the 2013 Gosei, he won the first two games, then lost the next three.

Kisei Leagues: The first third-round game in the A League was played on July 11. Hane Naoki 9P (W) beat Ichiriki Ryo 7P by resig. This was Hane’s first win after two losses. Ichiriki drops to 0-3; he is having a tough initiation in league play. On July 17, Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P (W) beat Takao Shinji Judan by resignation. More games played on July 24 clarified the lead. In the A League, Yamashita Keigo 9P (W) beat Kono Rin 9P by resignation. Kono (2-1) suffered his first loss, so Yamashita (3-0) is the sole undefeated player. In the B League, Murakawa Daisuke 7P (B) beat Yuki Satoshi by resignation. Yoda Norimoto 9P (B) (2-1) beat Kobayashi Satoru 9P (2-1) by 1.5 points, so Murakawa (3-0) is the sole undefeated player. It looks as if we might see a replay of last year’s play-off between Yamashita and Murakawa. The latter’s continued success shows that he is close to joining the top group of tournament players in Japan.

Obituary: Sasaki Tadashi
Sasaki Tadashi 8P died of acute leukemia on July 20. Born on May 28, 1963, Sasaki (right) was a disciple of Sakata Eio, 23rd Honinbo. He became 1-dan in 1980 and reached 8-dan in 2001. Sasaki was very active as a teacher and was well known in Japan. He was also working on a biography of his teacher. According to an obituary article in Go Weekly by his friend the go journalist Akiyama Kenji, Sasaki had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage two years ago; ironically, he was visiting a hospital at the time, so he got prompt treatment. Recently he held a party to celebrate his complete recovery. At such parties, guests are usually given a little present, and Sasaki’s showed his sense of humor, being a hand towel with a picture of a spider’s web on it. He was planning to take a group of disciples to the US Go Congress this year. Akiyama wrote that he first met Sasaki 40 years ago when he was in elementary school. Sasaki introduced himself by handing over a name card detailing his position as an insei. Akiyama thought that this was a bit over the top for an elementary-school pupil, but there was a good reason for it. When returning home late from insei games or watching professional games, Sasaki would often be stopped by policemen and scolded for being out so late, so the name card was his defense. photo by Brian Allen

An education program for middle level players…an educational library on the web site for members only… a rewards program. These are some of the ideas Central Region Director Bob Gilman is looking for feedback on in preparation for a special session at the upcoming US Go Congress to discuss ideas for overall development of the organization. Read more about these ideas and comment here.

David Cho 2D topped a field of 30 players at the Massachusetts Go Association’s annual Skip Ascheim Memorial Go Tournament on July 13th. The winners were David Cho 2D (at right in photo at left), who took first place with a 4-0 record; Pete Schumer 2k (at left in photo at left) was second, also scoring 4-0; Brandan Williams 20k (at left in photo at right), and Alex Linden 11k, both 4-0, tied for third. “Wang Ma 7D said he would be glad to play games online with fellow members of the Massachusetts Go Association,” says Tournament Director Eva Casey. Reach him at doctormawang@126.com. photos by Eva Casey; click here for tourney photos.

Students at McCormick Elementary, in Chicago, IL, had the opportunity recently to learn to play go from Xinming Simon Guo 2d, a licensed math teacher and founder of the GoAndMath Academy. “Students were playing a simple game during the class, blissfully unaware that they were also working on math skills as they put every stone on the board and counted the result at the end of the game,” Guo told the E-Journal.

At McCormick, the go class is part of the Chinese Artists-In-Residency Program, co-sponsored by Confucius Institute in Chicago (CIC) and GoAndMath Academy. The Chinese language teachers at McCormick — where 99.5% of the students are hispanic and 50% are English Language Learners — Ms. Yeh and Ms. Huang, heard about the go program during the professional workshop organized by CIC last year. “Go is an ideal tool to achieve the goal of our Chinese curriculum–to enhance students’ understanding of Chinese culture, and reinforce their learning of language skills,” says Guo. “During the entire 2013-2014 school year, the go program offered more than 130 learning sections to more than 4500 students in Chicago public schools,” said Jane Lu, the director of CIC and coordinator of CPS Chinese World Language Program.

“Go is not just a simple game,” says Guo. “Research by GoAndMath Academy reveals that there exists a hidden natural connection between math and go. Students can experience math concepts without even noticing them. More specifically, go helps students develop number sense, and three domains in Common Core standards: Counting and Cardinality; Operations and Algebraic Thinking; and Number and Operations in Base Ten. GoAndMath Academy designed the educational go program, which is appropriate for Pre-K through eighth grade, is aligned with the common core standards, and can be played with peers in school or around the world. This fantastic game combines math, science, art, and competition, as well as ancient oriental philosophy and culture. Go requires the highest level of critical thinking. It cultivates the abilities of observing, reflecting, imagining, reasoning, innovating, and decision-making,” says Guo.– Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Guo demonstrates the secrets of holding the go stone.

Go World: Complete Print Collection for Sale: All 129 issues, most in mint condition. Best offer over $1000 plus shipping, or pick them up at the Congress. Write to roylaird@gmail.com.Go Review Print Collection for Sale: More than 100 issues of Go World‘s predecessor, an English-language monthly published by the Nihon Kiin. The first attempt ever to explain the finer points of the game in English. Starting with issue #1, this collection contains all issues through 1972 (except for 1964 and two 1968 issues). Quarterlies from 1975 to 1977 also included. Good condition. Best offer over $500 plus shipping, or pick them up at the Congress. Write to roylaird@gmail.com.

After the first two rounds of the European Go Congress, there are only three Europeans with perfect scores: Ilya Shikshin from Russia, Fan Hui from France and Cristian Pop from Romania. Also undefeated are Yulin Tong, Chi-min Oh, Chen Wang, Young-Sam Kim and Zexiang Sui (click here for latest results).

Alexander Dinerstein (left), several-time European champion faced Fan Hui (right), last year’s winner, in the second round. “Fan Hui won by 3.5 points but according to several players there, Dinerstein must have made a mistake because the feeling was that the Russian was ahead.” Click here for the latest EGC blog reports.

Sasaki Tadashi 8P of the Nihon Ki-in passed away on July 20 at just 51. Sasaski, who visited the United States many times doing teaching games and workshops, had attended most of the U.S. Go Congresses over the last few years and had planned to attend this year’s in New York City. His death was a shock his many American friends and fans. “It’s terrible news,” said AGA President Andy Okun. “His teaching was always sharp, but full of humor as well, and his company warm and enjoyable.” “Mr. Sasaki was a big supporter of the Seattle Go Center and an enthusiastic hiker,” added Brian Allen of the Seattle Go Center. “We always enjoyed his visits to the Northwest.” Plans for a memorial ceremony at the Congress will be announced soon.– photo of Sasaki playing Andrew Jackson at the 2011 US Go Congress, posted on Sasaki’s Facebook page.

Lee Sedol 9p (left) advanced his lead in the MLily Gu vs Lee Jubango after defeating opponent Gu Li 9p in their most recent match on July 27 in Liuan. After six games, Lee is ahead of Gu at 4-2.

During Game 6, the opening favored Gu (B) but Lee (W) seemed to ensure his victory over the course of the game through insightful cuts, sacrifices, and trades. However, the game became more complicated with moves 146 and 148, leaving fans with white knuckles for the last 30 moves. Each move could have swayed the game but Lee persevered until Gu resigned at 178.

Although Gu and Lee have established a pattern for their wins and losses (Lee won games 1 and 2 while Gu took games 3 and 4, etc.), game 7 will be a key match in the 10 game series. If Lee succeeds, he will force Gu against the ropes. If Gu comes back, Lee will need to be nearly flawless in games 8 through 10.

Game 7 will take place in Lhasa on August 31. In the meantime, fans can read preliminary analysis on game 6 by An Younggil 8p on Go Game Guru. For more information about the MLily Gu vs Lee Jubango including photos and coverage of previous games, please visit Go Game Guru.